Bold Moves

Service In Action

Humanity In Action

From their View

Strength in Numbers

Bravo!

Global Access

Webster University, founded in 1915 with its home campus in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, is the only Tier 1, private, nonprofit university with campus locations around the world including metropolitan, military, online and corporate, as well as American-style traditional campuses in North America, Europe and Asia.

Global Reach

Through Webster’s Global Network, Everyone WINS

Every year, Webster University’s international campuses welcome students from Webster’s U.S. locations, as well as 29 affiliate universities currently partnering with Webster in Webster’s International Network of Schools (WINS) program. Through this unique program, Webster also accepts students from more than 40 unaffiliated U.S. institutions to study abroad in its nationally recognized program. All qualified students receive travel funds. The WINS program adds a richness and depth to students’ academic and cultural experiences while traveling, learning, studying and staying at Webster

University locations around the world. Other colleges and universities are able to capitalize on Webster’s already-established network and infrastructure to offer quality study abroad programs to their own students. • U.S. News & World Report ranked Webster’s Study Abroad programs in the top two percent in America’s Best Colleges 2013.• The Open Doors 2011 report ranked Webster first in Missouri and the Midwest and ninth nationally based on the number of students in long-term study abroad programs.

Empowering People

With Webster’s centennial approaching in 2015, we stand at a defining moment in Webster University’s history. It is also a turning point in higher education itself as colleges and universities around the world call on innovation and creativity to meet future challenges.

At Webster, we follow in the footsteps of entrepreneurs and innovators and it is with great pride that we find ourselves here today – helping to reinvent and renew for the century to come.

Now is a time for looking back and for moving forward. We know that tomorrow’s leaders will need to look at and respond to the world differently than we do today. Through our faculty, curriculum and global perspective, we endow our students with the tools they need to thrive as global citizens and to find success in their lives and chosen vocations, wherever they are.

In Webster University’s university report, we introduce you to just a few of the ideas and people who are bringing our exciting and evolving vision to life. We invite you to visit us online or in person at our home campus in
St. Louis, or at any one of our many locations around the world. We think
you will feel welcome and you will like what you see.

Sincerely,

Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) J. Stroble
President

Dr. Julian Z. Schuster
Provost and Senior Vice President

Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) J. Stroble, who became
Webster University’s 11th president in 2009,
is leading the University’s transformation as we
prepare to enter our second century of thinking
beyond traditional university walls.

Dr. Julian Z. Schuster joins Dr. Stroble
in a partnership leadership model as Provost
and Senior Vice President. He is responsible
for all operating units of the University and reports directly to the president as the number two executive at the University.

Strategy in Action

Faculty and staff come together in dynamic sessions of thinking, planning and doing.

Webster University’s Strategic Plan, Vision 2020, established a new vision and mission, six large goals and many individual objectives. As part of the systematic planning within Vision 2020, Dr. Stroble and her administrative team created the “Next Level Prism” to integrate and sustain the many admirable efforts undertaken each year by individuals.

The Prism is but one way to communicate from a systems perspective the challenges and opportunities for Webster University—each box working simultaneously and synergistically to bring Webster University to the next level.

The Prism provides the framework to ask the questions and to engage the community in identifying what is needed, to charge its development, to celebrate and to provide support and resources, and for holding the members of the community accountable for completing the work needed to accomplish our mission and vision.

Faculty Expertise

Webster faculty balance global scholarship with professional experience to bring
first-class, real-world insight into the classroom. At Webster locations around
the world, they maintain strong local connections to provide unparalleled personal service and opportunities to students.

Global Leadership Academy

The signature Global Leadership Academy brings faculty and staff together in a yearlong cohort to study and practice relevant leadership topics in workshop settings, as well as engage in activities designed to complement Webster’s curriculum.
This unique program helps Webster faculty and staff “lead from where they are” through an intensive program of meaningful experiences. In this diverse environment, Academy fellows learn and use the tools required to break down barriers and effectively respond to opportunities and challenges facing Webster University.

The Global Citizenship Program

Beginning in fall 2012, all Webster freshmen enrolled in the Global Citizenship Program, Webster’s new undergraduate core curriculum. Designed with input from Webster faculty throughout the world, this mix of new core courses will provide all Webster students with the critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills needed to meet the demands of the 21st century and make a positive difference in the world around them.

Aligning Academic Programs with Marketplace Realities

With faculty as key leaders, Webster calls on their expertise to solve real problems and move the University forward. In 2012, Webster initiated a comprehensive academic and administrative program and site review to ensure consistent
and high-caliber academic offerings and student services. This program,
developed by the faculty and staff, now provides the ongoing framework
for continual improvement of academic programs and Webster locations.

Exploring New Directions

This past fall, the president and provost called upon the entire faculty and staff
to serve on Working Groups to innovate and discover new opportunities in areas
of critical interest to Webster around the world:

Recruitment, Enrollment & Retention

Organizational Realignment

STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math & Medicine)

Diversity of New Hires

External Outreach & Engagement

Policies & Procedures/Shared Governance

Over 300 engaged employees volunteered to participate in developing new ideas.

GlobalConnections

As a global institution, we continue to extend our reach with new programs and partnerships in every corner of the world.

“Our mission is to transform students for global citizenship and individual excellence. Transformation requires curiosity, courage and commitment — qualities that we seek and develop in our students. Armed with these qualities, our students will not only understand the world, they will also be capable of making it better.”

— Dr. Julian Z. Schuster

LocalCommitment

At Webster University, we know a global outlook is essential for success in today’s interconnected world. But “the last mile” in making a difference is most often through local connections. We partner with business and industry to strengthen the local communities we serve. Here are just a few examples:

Kansas City, Missouri

In Kansas City, Missouri, Webster is using a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to provide teachers in Kansas City Public Schools with the coursework necessary to earn certification in Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages.

St. Louis, Missouri

Throughout the St. Louis region, Webster is turning RN’s into leaders through MBA and MSN cohorts with multiple health systems. Webster is helping BJC HealthCare and SSM Health Care develop their own leaders from within, with on-site graduate programs taught by Webster faculty, tailored to the unique needs of these organizations.

Castle Rock, colorado

In Castle Rock, Colorado, Webster works with the local Chamber of Commerce to provide cohort-style MBA and other master’s degrees for local professionals and government employees.

Geneva, Switzerland

In Geneva, Webster’s Counseling program – which is offered at more than 30 campus locations worldwide and is professionally accredited locally by the Swiss Association of Counseling – trains Swiss counseling students and offers counseling services to the community through Webster’s on-campus Counseling Training Center.

Bold Moves

Building on St. Louis’ reputation as a world-class chess center, Webster welcomed the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence to our St. Louis campus. The acclaimed Institute relocated to Webster from Texas Tech University, bringing with it the members of the reigning national collegiate champion Texas Tech “A” chess team, which includes an unprecedented eight Grandmasters.

A five-time Olympic champion, Polgar is one of the strongest female chess players in history, winning four world championships. She was also the first woman to qualify
for the Men’s World Championship Cycle and earn the Men’s Grandmaster title.

Globally, educators recognize chess as an effective tool for cultivating interest and success in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math and medicine) disciplines. Polgar and the Institute are now working to make Webster the nation’s premier center for chess education, research and technology and a leader in women’s chess.

“Webster’s SPICE program provides the opportunity for young women to excel in this ancient game of strategy, which has important links to other types of learning such as science, technology, engineering and math.” - Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri

Service in Action

Since 1995, nearly 25,000 Webster students, faculty, staff and alumni have delivered more than 106,000 hours of volunteer service in their local communities through Webster Works Worldwide, our annual day of community service.

We take this time each year to work together to complete service projects­ — from playing music at senior centers, to restoring parks and trails, to creating community art projects. Each one allows our volunteer teams to demonstrate Webster’s commitment to worldwide community engagement, while helping to plant a seed for lifelong service to others.

Webster University’s public art initiative, launched in 2012, aims at giving visual and physical form to the University’s core values related to education, diversity and global citizenship. The Webster University Art Council collaborated with entities in the local and regional communities and beyond to enhance its work, expand its impact and to achieve this mission. This art on campus appears outside of the traditional art settings of studios, classrooms and galleries. Webster’s Public Art initiative invites community members to engage with the campus community to promote, stimulate, respectfully provoke and encourage intellectual dialogue.

In fall 2012, a group of 30 students and faculty from Webster University and a local high school journeyed seven hours by bus to Perryville, Arkansas, for a simulated and integrated experience in third-world poverty at Heifer International Ranch. Webster faculty designed the program as a template for one of 20 proposed Global Keystone classes for Webster juniors beginning in 2014-15. It was the first time the University partnered with a high school as part of a project of this magnitude.

Keystone seminars will be part of the University’s overall Global Citizenship Program that recently replaced the general education requirements for all Webster students. Students entering Webster in 2012 take two seminars — the first-year seminar as new students, and the Global Keystone Seminar as juniors. In addition, students will complete eight courses of at least three credit hours each in the general education portion of the program.

Based on the Real World Survivor course template, the experiential seminar is integrative and interdisciplinary, and exposes students to other cultures, social systems and human behaviors. A unique component to these integrated

seminars is to have multiple instructors for each course – the Heifer seminar included education, philosophy and international relations professors.

At the ranch, the students were divided into families and assigned to a Zambian mud hut, a Tibetan yurt or one of two dilapidated Appalachian dwellings. Over the course of their stay, students and professors alike had to trade labor, barter for food, tend to the animals and figure out other ways to acquire whatever it was they needed to eat. Nightly confessionals were videotaped in the village marketplace.

Unlike the TV show, no one could escape the experience by getting “voted off the ranch.”

From their View

A collection of related social media tweets about Webster University.

Strength in Numbers

Diversity

The “Top 100 Degree Producers” survey for 2011 is the only national report of graduate degrees earned by African American, Hispanic, Asian American and American Indian students by U.S. colleges and universities. Webster has consistently achieved top rankings since Diverse: Issues in Higher Education began publishing the survey in 1991.
In 2012, Webster’s incoming class was the most diverse ever in the University’s history.

Net Assets

Consolidated net assets at Webster grew almost 95 percent over the past five years, due primarily to superior operating results, generous philanthropic support from alumni and donors, and prudent management of the University’s resources. The increase in net assets is one of the prime indicators of how the University is performing financially.

Leadershipin Action

WorkingTogether

Traditional spring graduation held at the historic Muny Theatre, America’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre in St. louis, draws Webster graduates from all corners of the globe who participate in the commencement ceremony.

“There was a day when access to a globally focused education was considered a luxury.

Today, it’s a necessity for our graduates if they are to remain competitive in the global marketplace.”

— Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) J. Stroble

A path to global excellence... begins at home.

A new Comprehensive Master Plan was finalized in 2012, guiding development for the next 15-20 years for the St. Louis home campus. Working with internationally known planning and urban design firm Sasaki & Associates, Webster developed a plan that defines a transformational vision for future growth.
It’s a plan that serves students today, but will be molded and brought to life by the creative insight and energy of students, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and friends of the University.
Designed with consideration of the unique needs of a University based in St. Louis but serving campus communities around the globe, this campus roadmap is rooted in the academic, student life and global mission of the institution. Webster intentionally set out to create innovative approaches to sustainable and sensitive growth that reinforces a strong landscape, sense of place and community, and provides a stronger visual identity for the campus. A key driver of the plan is to grow traditional undergraduate enrollment in a manner that balances graduate enrollment and maintains the University’s identity as a historic institution transforming students for global citizenship in St. Louis and around the world.

Humanity in Action

2013 WEBSTER UNIVERSITY REPORT

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Continents

Countries

Cities

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University

In 1915, a group of dedicated nuns identified an unmet need in their community. Five years before U.S. women won the right to vote, these Sisters of Loretto established one of the first Catholic women’s colleges west of the Mississippi River. Progressive for their time, they provided higher education when such opportunities were few and far between.
Four years later, two French students set this young institution on an exciting new course when they became its first international students. Over the next two decades, nearly 200 Webster students and faculty went abroad or came to Webster from Asia, Europe and South America.
Webster had taken its first steps toward transforming the college experience and becoming one of the world’s first global universities. During the 1960s, after a lay board of local business and civic leaders assumed the school’s leadership in 1967, Webster became a co-educational institution accepting

male and female students. It continued to reinvent the traditional university model to serve the evolving needs of changing demographics.
Today, Webster serves 22,000 students through
five colleges and schools:
College of Arts & Sciences
Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts
George Herbert Walker School
of Business & Technology
School of Communications
School of Education
More than 155,000 Webster alumni form a global network of accomplished citizens who are connected through a shared bond – a respect for diversity and
each others’ values.

U.S. News and World Report continuously ranks Webster in the top tier of the Midwest region’s national university category – in the 2013 rankings, moving up four points to 24th. For the fourth consecutive year, Webster ranks 1st in its category in the St. Louis area.

Webster’s nursing and nurse anesthesia graduate programs ranked as two of the nation’s best graduate schools and programs in U.S. News and World Report in 2011.

Military Advanced Education has annually recognized Webster as a top school for military students.

The Military Times named Webster University to its “2013 Best for Vets: Colleges” list, based on a survey of more than 650 schools. The survey recognizes schools’ efforts to accommodate veterans and active-duty service members.

The Institute of International Education’s annual Open Doors Report ranked Webster 9th among all U.S. master’s degree-granting institutions for study abroad of a semester-long duration, and 1st in the same category among Midwestern institutions.

A Webster education offers real value and is recognized nationally for it. Webster was recognized by the 2013 U.S. News & World Report for the low debt load upon graduation of its Class of 2011.

For the second consecutive year, the University’s Study Abroad program ranked in the top 2 percent of the nearly 1,400 colleges and universities surveyed in 2013 by U.S. News & World Report.

The University has been recognized as a military-friendly school by G.I. Jobs magazine for the past several years.

Webster University was presented with the 2012 Confucius Institute of the Year award at the World Confucius Institute Conference Opening Ceremony in Beijing, as a testament to our commitment to educational initiatives and to globally educating the citizenry of the world.

Webster is recognized among America’s Best Colleges as ranked by Forbes magazine.

Webster University’s graduate degree-seeking student population represents the largest number of individuals of diverse backgrounds among all traditional, non-profit U.S. higher education institutions, according to a 2011 survey published in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Webster University is one of the best colleges to work for, according to the fifth annual workplace survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education – one of the most respected publications serving the academic community. Webster has received top honors every year since the survey began in 2008.